News & Insights

Marketers today face a staggering number of options when it comes to selecting which marketing channels will comprise their marketing mix. There are an estimated 120+ content delivery and marketing channels right now. As exciting as that may be, it can also lead to marketing paralysis. How can I know which channels will work and which won’t? What will be most cost-effective, and how much budget do I need to allocate to each channel? Which ones will work best together to reach my target audiences?

You know your business needs a marketing strategy to succeed. But the traditional marketing strategy, which focuses on crafting the perfect messaging to convert customers and distributing that message through a few major marketing channels, isn’t going to cut it anymore. Think about what your company really needs to be successful in today’s constantly evolving marketing landscape. Certainly, you still need good messaging and a compelling value proposition that will speak to your target audience. But equally important is understanding where your current and potential customers are, what lifestyle habits and values they have, and how they interact with brands and various media channels.

As multi-channel marketing continues delivering unprecedented ROI to companies, more dollars are going into marketing than ever before. According to a recent CMO Survey, the average business now spends 11% of its total company budget on marketing. For some SaaS companies in rapid growth mode, sales and marketing spending is upwards of 50% of revenue (Source: Jeanne DeWitt, Head of North America, Revenue & Growth, Stripe).

CMOs aren’t just determining brand strategy and creative direction. They also must juggle a growing number of marketing technology systems and tools while developing unified programs across diverse marketing channels – often with limited internal resources. Mastering this complexity is essential as marketing+tech contributes around 50% of a business’s enterprise value according to Forbes. The myriad of choices available to marketers today can make it difficult to determine which go-to-market strategy, budget allocations and mix of channels and tactics will be most effective in meeting a company’s growth or revenue attainment goals.

The wealth of data marketers have access to is rapidly increasing in today’s digital-driven marketing environment. But rather than making it easier to set the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will drive growth and revenue-attainment goals, business leaders are having more trouble developing and achieving the right KPIs, according to an MIT Sloan/Google report. Executives are often torn between different approaches to goal setting. Should KPIs be strategic or tactical? Operational or financial? Broad or focused?